Oct 13

LPGA Tour: The Best Value In Town

I know two things about the LPGA Tour in these here United States of America. The first is that a terrific relationship of symbiotic proportions is developing ‘twixt Lorena Ochoa

and Suzann Pettersen.

SP blasted a -8 today to close to a stroke off La Mexicana. Ochoa is -4 on the day, doing what great players do and preserving consistency (68, 67, and probable 68.) Sunday should offer a memorable battle between two players, with a trio of Korean stars prepared to capitalize from a pithy two strokes behind Ochoa.

The second item that barks at me like a poodle is Michelle Wie’s certainty to clinch “chuckle of the week.” She was initially locked in a death struggle with Bettina Hauert for the A-Flight championship, but Hauert found her game today with a 74, giving her a four-shot differential on Wie. Ai Miyazato is last in the championship flight at +3, a wee twelve in front of Hauert, 16 ahead of Wie, and 9 behind the co-leaders (editor’s note: Ochoa continued her mastery of the 18th with a bogey, falling into a tie with Pettersen and rendering my initial projection idiotic.)

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Lorena Ochoa: The LPGA's answer to Arnold Palmer »

9 comments

§ TV Watcher said on : 10/13/07 @ 18:14
Nice to see Wie finally playing up to her potential, injury and excuse free. Too bad we didn't get to see another real golfer.
§ Alex said on : 10/13/07 @ 20:06
TVWatcher,

An interesting sidelight to Bubbles continuing meltdown is that Ai Miyazato had a SEXTUPLE BOGEY and two other bogeys in her round today and still posted a better round than Bubbles.
§ stop! said on : 10/13/07 @ 20:43
What would be the next sells pitch for Wie family? She is 18, so playing young is over. Playing against men is probably also dead. Maybe playing nude? I really could not come up with another idea. But the shameless BJ guy may have a better idea.
§ Oliver Sudden said on : 10/14/07 @ 09:54
I wouldn't be surprised if Suzann Pettersen turns out to be the Jack Nicklaus and Lorena the Arnold Palmer. In any case this rivalry is exciting. As far as Michelle Wie is concerned, those of us who recognized early on that there was no reason to believe she would become a golf superstar and were much maligned ( one golf writer at the golf channel who I was friendly with refused to speak to me after I expressed my opinion and wrote me off as a lunatic ) now deserve an apology from the Wie cheerleaders. I'm not holding my breath.
§ Alex said on : 10/14/07 @ 10:27
Oliver Sudden,

The Golf Channel has been the biggest contributor to the Wie hype.

Mark Rolfing proclaimed on several occasions that Miss Wie would soon be a muliple majors winner on the LPGA tour and would also be a serious competitor on the PGA tour.

Brandel Chamblee, himself a PGA pro who should know better, gave the most absurd prediction. He said about a year ago that soon Wie would be winning six, eight, or even ten times per year on the women's tour.

I only saw Michelle one time in person, at the 2005 Publinks outside of Cincinnati.

Although she was far better as a golfer then than she is now, I was not overly impressed with her game.

Due to the excessive hype, I suppose I expected a lot more from her.
§ Jim C said on : 10/14/07 @ 17:53
Michelle Wie went under par with a 71 on Sunday and finished a stroke up on Bettina Hauert. This time she improved as the rounds went on. This suggests that she might be more rusty than injured at this point. Of course there is still the question of whether she could hold up week after week.
§ Irma said on : 10/14/07 @ 18:07
Why don’t we leave MW aside for a minute? In 2005, Annika won and her closest competitor was Paula Creamer at 10 under par. This year, there were 6 players behind Lorena shooting 10 under or lower. The LPGA is definitely getting better and more competitive. Wonderful news!!!!!
§ Joe Cool said on : 10/14/07 @ 18:22
It seems that Michelle has no idea what 2008 will bring. During the Samsung she did not look very happy. I think one reason that she did not try to qualify for the LPGA was the fact that her game could not have stood up to six consecutive rounds under pressure and she used Stanford as the excuse. Only time will tell what the future holds for Michelle. The best thing her parents could do would go back to Hawaii and leave her alone.
§ Alex said on : 10/15/07 @ 09:14
Jim C,

I see that you are also a optimistic about Bubbles' brilliant 71 which included six sparking birdies. (Unfortunately for her and her fans, it also contained three bogeys and a double bogey.)

Jimbo, Bubbles won't have to worry about her fragile body holding up week after week.

She chickened out of "Q" school and thus is not an LPGA member. She only gets to play in six LPGA tournaments in 2008, providing her agent can find that many gullible sponsors.